Challenges

The countries of the Arab region – while being hugely heterogenous in their socio-economic and demographic contexts and conditions – continuously aim to reform their respective social protection systems and programmes in line with SDGs 1.3. and 10.4. These reforms, in large parts, either reflect changing macro-economic condition that necessitate greater efficiency of social protection spending (e.g. in oil-producing countries) and/or an evolving understanding of vulnerabilities – for example those related to life-cycle risks like ill-health or old age of informal workers etc. – which require additional efforts by governments to expand and enhance the effectiveness of their social protection programmes. The evolving economic and social challenges Arab countries face, which require reforms of social protection programme designs, delivery mechanisms and/or organizational set-ups, are not unique to the Arab region but have been experienced in other parts of the world before. Against this backdrop, curated topical south-south exchange meetings can inform policy makers in search for reform options.

Toward a Solution

ESCWA’s Comprehensive Social Protection Reform Support Programme aims to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of social protection systems and programmes in the Arab region and thereby contribute specifically to achieving SDGs 1.3 and 10.4. by addressing specified policy or implementation challenges, like – for example – extending social insurance coverage to informal workers.

The specific approach used to address the identified challenges is to – participatory with the respective member states – design tailored peer-to-peer/south-south exchange meetings that address a defined challenge identified by the respective government in collaboration with ESCWA. Based on its own knowledge base and network – at times including partners like ECLAC and ECA – ESCWA identifies resource persons in government institutions of countries, which encountered a similar challenge in earlier policy-design and implementation cycles and found practical, inspiring solutions to these challenges. The actual exchange events are frequently designed to be relevant also for other countries in the Arab region which face similar challenges.

For example, in May 2024 ESCWA, in support of the Government of Egypt and in partnership with the Ford Foundation and the International Social Security Association, organized a south-south policy design workshop on “Extending social insurance to irregular workers”. The event was organized to enable exchange and learning between representatives from the Egyptian Ministry of Social Solidarity, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Labor, the National Organization for Social Insurance, and government officials and practitioners from selected South American (Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay) as well as other Arab countries (Jordan, Morocco). Specifically, the event focused on transferring in-depth knowledge and hands-on experience on enrolling informal workers into simplified, flat rate, social insurance and tax regimes, known as “Monotax/Monotributo”.

The following day after the event, ESCWA – undergirded by inputs from government experts from Chile, Brazil and Uruguay – presented the event’s results and lessons learnt to an interministerial committee of the government of Egypt, consisting of the Minister of Social Solidarity, the Minister of Health, the Minister of Labor and representatives of the Ministry of Finance and the National Social Insurance Organization. The committee decided to apply the proposed Monotax approach in a pilot project, aiming to successively enroll irregular construction workers, workers in agriculture, small scale fishers, and trash collectors into a flat rage, simplified insurance mechanism, covering short term risks like work injury, ill-health, and maternity.

The phased enrollment of these groups will directly contribute to Egypt’s progress towards achieving SDG 1 (specifically SDG 1.3): Those covered by the pilot scheme are unlikely to fall into poverty due to the financial consequences of work injury, ill-health, and maternity.

The institutionalization of this pilot project in Egypt’s National Organization for Social Insurance (NOSI) – in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Solidarity, the Ministry of Labor as well as the Universal Health Insurance Agency – will contribute to its sustainability and possibly act as a blueprint for extending social insurance benefits to other groups of informal workers in Egypt.

The project is innovative in the Egyptian context. Moreover, due to Egypt’s “lighthouse” function in the Arab region, it is expected – once rolled out and publicized – to inspire policy makers in the middle-come countries of the wider Arab region, which face similar challenges in terms of achieving SDG 1.3, due to the large share of informal workers in their respective labor forces.

A key lesson learnt in this context is that curated south-south exchange, addressing common policy and implementation challenges, could be a staple within the cycle of social challenge, policy solution and subsequent implementation, given its essential role in stimulating policy innovations that translate into achieving SDGs